The Africa Cup of Nations Controversy, Explained

Many fear the decision to strip Senegal of its title has “blemished” African soccer.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: The decision to strip Senegal of its Africa Cup of Nations title sparks controversy across the continent and beyond, Chadian President Mahamat Déby threatens retaliation after a deadly cross-border drone strike from Sudan, and South Africa imposes high tariffs on structural steel imports from China.

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: The decision to strip Senegal of its Africa Cup of Nations title sparks controversy across the continent and beyond, Chadian President Mahamat Déby threatens retaliation after a deadly cross-border drone strike from Sudan, and South Africa imposes high tariffs on structural steel imports from China.

AFCON Controversy

The fallout from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) decision to strip Senegal of its 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title and award it to Morocco two months later continues to reverberate across Africa. Analysts worldwide fear that the ruling may set a precedent where trophies in international soccer can be “won in the boardroom.”

Senegal initially won the Jan. 18 final 1-0 in extra time. But on March 17, CAF’s appeal board ruled that Senegal had forfeited the match when its players temporarily stormed off the pitch in protest after a Senegalese goal was overturned and a late penalty was awarded to Morocco. The ruling also awarded Morocco a 3-0 victory.

Senegal, for its part, has signaled an unwillingness to return the trophy. “The cup will not leave the country,” Abdoulaye Sow, the head of the Senegalese Football Federation, told Senegalese newspaper Le Soleil. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye posted a photo of himself on Facebook last week with the trophy prominently displayed on a shelf behind him.

While CAF has officially changed the records, Senegal’s government has appealed what it described as a “grossly illegal and profoundly unjust” ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. There are still unanswered questions about what will happen to the medals handed to Senegalese players in January and the tournament prize money of $10 million.

Globally, soccer players and officials have denounced the decision, which has further entrenched a perception of corruption within CAF that worsened amid multiple financial scandals in recent years.

Many African soccer fans believe that Morocco holds significant financial and political influence within the football governing body. In particular, Fouzi Lekjaa, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, has come under intense scrutiny over an alleged conflict of interest in his roles as both the first vice president of CAF and Morocco’s budget minister.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe, the billionaire brother-in-law of South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa, has denied preferential treatment for any nation, insisting on the integrity of the appeal process, but he admitted that the fallout had led to issues of “mistrust.”

Former Liberian President and soccer player George Weah, who is the only African recipient of both the Ballon d’Or soccer award and FIFA World Player of the Year, said the decision had “scarred and blemished” African football.

“Once play is allowed to continue and the match is completed, the result obtained on the field must stand,” Weah said. “Football must be decided on the pitch, not redecided after the final whistle.”

The decision has also sparked the spread of fake news on social media, including reports that Guinea had demanded a review of its 1976 AFCON defeat to Morocco after the Moroccan team walked off the pitch to protest a refereeing call. Guinea denied this in a statement on Sunday.

Soccer stars globally fear that the CAF ruling has undone decades of work against a faulty assumption that African football cannot be taken seriously.

This year’s AFCON propelled the tournament into one of the fastest-growing sporting events globally, with record audiences, but the games are still frequently rescheduled to accommodate European League matches. And some European analysts and players still disparage African soccer. For instance, English soccer pundit Jamie Carragher has suggested that AFCON is not a major tournament compared with the European Champions League.

“What will people say about African football now? That it’s not serious, that it’s not rigorous. It saddens me, especially since ​it’s improving,” Alain Giresse, a French former soccer player who has coached four African teams, told French newspaper L’Equipe.

These criticisms were echoed by Egyptian former striker Ahmed Hossam, better known as Mido. “Welldone to #Motsepe you made us all look like some of the western world wants us to look like!!” he posted on X.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Senegal and Morocco, which once shared close diplomatic ties, may be souring beyond sports, with reports of rising distrust among Senegalese and Moroccans. Senegal’s government has also expressed “solidarity” with the nearly 20 Senegalese fans who were handed jail terms of three months to one year in Morocco for their involvement in match-day rioting and violence.

The controversy over AFCON may be a sign that Morocco’s sports diplomacy to curry favor on the continent has backfired. Morocco rejoined the African Union in 2017, ending a 33-year absence that began in 1984, when the body recognized the independence of Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco claims as its own.

Some analysts have argued that Morocco’s frequent hosting of CAF tournaments, as well as the investments it has made to co-host the 2030 World Cup, is an attempt to “sportswash” its image  and influence other African nations’ position on Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory.

Even before the ruling, Moroccan King Mohammed VI appealed for calm amid rising hate speech over the heated AFCON final. “Nothing can undermine the closeness nurtured over centuries between our African peoples, nor the fruitful cooperation built with the various countries of the continent,” he said in a statement in January.

The Week Ahead

Thursday, March 26: The United Nations Security Council discusses its peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

South Africa announces its interest rate decision in response to rising inflation and oil price surges.

Thursday, March 26, to Sunday, March 29: The World Trade Organization’s ministerial conference is held in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Monday, March 30: Faustin-Archange Touadéra begins his third term as president of the Central African Republic.

What We’re Watching

Chad incursions. Chadian President Mahamat Déby threatened retaliatory action last week after a cross-border drone strike from Sudan killed 17 people in the Chadian border town of Tiné.

Over the course of Sudan’s civil war, drone attacks have killed dozens of civilians and soldiers in Chad. The Darfur region, which borders Chad, has been a major site of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The SAF and RSF blamed each other for the Tiné attack.

Chad shut its eastern border with Sudan in February, citing repeated deadly incursions into its territory by Sudan’s warring parties. Now, Déby has ordered a “total closure” of the border along with a buildup of Chadian troops.

Nigeria-U.K. ties. The United Kingdom has agreed to help upgrade two of Nigeria’s busiest ports following Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to England last week. The deal will generate supply contracts worth around $315 million for U.K. firms, including a contract with British Steel worth $95 million.

Post-Brexit, the United Kingdom has been looking to secure closer trade relations with its former African colonies. Meanwhile, Nigeria has been seeking out European partnerships on security and defense since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to go “guns a-blazing” into the country if the government didn’t address insecurity.

As predicted in last week’s newsletter, the two nations also held meetings on counterterrorism partnerships. Abuja signed a deal worth more than $190 million to buy unmanned aerial vehicles from MARSS, a U.K.-founded private defense technology company.

Pretoria’s steel tariffs. Last week, South Africa imposed high anti-dumping tariffs on structural steel imports from Thailand and its fellow BRICS+ member China in order to protect its domestic steel industry.

The tariff rate on Chinese structural steel is nearly 75 percent, suggesting that BRICS member nations will continue to prioritize economic protection over the unity of the geopolitical bloc.

Ethiopian fuel crisis. Ethiopia has urged citizens to use fuel sparingly as it faces the prospect of oil supply disruptions driven by war in the Middle East. Addis Ababa said it would give the defense, agriculture, and public transportation sectors priority access to fuel.

FP’s Most Read This Week

What We’re Reading

Mali’s opposition. Imam Mahmoud Dicko, an influential Malian political and religious leader, has become the central figure in a growing opposition movement against Mali’s military junta, Mohammed Sanda reports in Africa Is a Country. Once a supporter of the junta, he is now one of its most vocal critics, advocating from exile in Algeria for a return to civilian rule.

“If Dicko’s movement succeeds in reopening civic space, restoring constitutional politics, and giving Malians a real voice, it could directly weaken extremist groups, who thrive when people believe that force is the only path to change,” Sanda writes.

AI surveillance. African nations including Egypt, Nigeria, and Rwanda are increasingly turning to Chinese artificial intelligence-enabled surveillance without adequate legal regulation to protect citizens, Ananya Bhattacharya reports in Rest of World.

A study released in March by the Institute of Development Studies and the African Digital Rights Network showed that 11 African nations have collectively spent more than $2 billion on facial recognition tools and other surveillance tech from China.

Nosmot Gbadamosi is a multimedia journalist and the writer of Foreign Policy’s weekly Africa Brief. She has reported on human rights, the environment, and sustainable development from across the African continent. X: @nosmotg

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